June
30, 1945, 9:30 in the morning. The day is somewhat misty and
without the sun.

The
morning did not "set well" with the Man. He stood
looking out of the back door with a sour, dry look on his face.
He looked at the shed he had built with his own hands that was
still standing after 10 years. His glance swept past the shed
and through a crack in the wall of the fence. He caught sight of
Grandmother Eiserloh standing in the Eiserloh kitchen, drinking
coffee. He watched the old lady fascinated and with quickened
interest. It always interested him to watch white people
unobserved. They acted like so normal animals.

The
old woman stood hunched a little over the kitchen table, over
which gleamed a checked brown oilcloth. Her hair was swept back
from her forehead in a tignon, its graying mass caught up in a
knot the size of a man's fist at the nape of her neck. Her face
had that early morning look about it as she stared through the
window that looked out upon the neighbor's house some forty feet
away. She drank her coffee with an intense look--or rather, an
intense feel. She drank it like one who has a great hunger and
need for a thing. Like a thirsty man drinking water, quietly,
draught after draught, or a small child drinking sweet milk when
hungry.

He
watched her there for a moment as she sucked in the hot coffee,
oblivious to everything in the world, her blank eyes staring out
of the window, and her mind's eyes turned inward into the
innermost recesses of her soul. "They are such damn normal,
ordinary animals!" said the man as he turned away to go into his bathroom.

Study of the blacksmith
tradition and New Orleans famous lace
balconies and fences.

Acclaimed during his life as the unofficial
poet laureate of the New Orleans
African-American community, Marcus Christian
recorded a distinguished career as
historian, journalist, and literary scholar.
He was a contributor to Pelican's
Gumbo Ya Ya, and also wrote many
articles that appeared in numerous
newspapers, journals, and general-interest
publications.

This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London

Before there was money, there was debt. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that for more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it. Debt: The First 5,000 Yearsis a fascinating chronicle of this little known history—as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy.